Want To Be In the Know? Rely On Your Contact Center
December 19, 2013
By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor
Businesses have all sorts of tools when it comes to measuring success. Software solutions, surveys and revenue amounts are all pretty decent metrics that can provide insightful information for positive growth. However, recent analysis from esteemed contact center professionals says that, in order to really grasp what’s really going on with your business, look no further than the contact center.
The contact center is the hub of customer interaction. Consider your agents as integral tools in understanding what’s really going on with your customers. They hear every positive and negative comment, assist customers with their needs, provide support when necessary and, really, are at the forefront of customer service success.
Investing in contact center solutions is always a good decision; however, it’s necessary to look beyond call percentages and customer retention volumes for the truth.
"We know that massive amounts of knowledge go in and out of contact centers every day," said Holger Reisinger, Jabra (News - Alert) vice president of marketing, products and alliances, in a recent press statement. "If we are smart in capturing these customer insights, this will position contact center managers as key players in companies' strategic planning."
Are customers using the products as you intended them to? Are you inspired to create new products and better designs? Can you offer newer services that can better serve your customer base? These questions can be answered simply by looking at customer feedback.
Essentially, the contact center is becoming a knowledge center.
"There is no doubt that it raises the profile of the contact center, if that is where we are getting the important information and having the great discussions as to how we can develop our products and services even more,” said Stealey Reed, Content Director at International Customer Management Institute (ICMI).
When you match customer feedback to what you’re seeing in analytics, you get a much clearer picture of what’s going on. Then and only then can you really know how to fix problems and go after the right opportunities.
Surveys and checkboxes provide an opportunity for customers to relay pretty general information, particularly if you’re setting up the questions and prompting for certain answers. Opening up the dialog to dig deeper helps contact center managers know what’s really going on.
Customers have different reasons that require different solutions, so an in-person conversation can provide the more explicit, more valuable information that can help you fix a problem or, if it’s going really well, keep doing what you’re doing.
When you collect feedback from your customers consistently, you’ll know if you’re building your business in the right direction. Experiment with the contact center itself, rely on the information from your agents, and above all, when you find what works, make it a standard practice.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson